The first event of the day features Laux and Millar hosting “A Conversation About Poetry” at 11 a.m. in Room 317 at the Kent Student Center. The second event is a poetry reading with Laux and Mlekoday at 7:30 p.m. in the Kent Student Center Kiva.

Laux, judge of the 2012 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize, is the author of several collections of poetry, including Awake; What We Carry, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; Smoke; Facts about the Moon, chosen by the poet Ai as winner of the Oregon Book Award and also a finalist for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize; and The Book of Men. She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts and has been a Pushcart Prize winner. Laux has taught creative writing at the University of Oregon, Pacific University and North Carolina State University. She has led summer workshops at Esalen in Big Sur. She is the co-author, with Kim Addonizio, of The Poet’s Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry.

Millar is the author of several poetry collections, including Blue Rust, Fortune and Overtime, which was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. He has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Montalvo Arts Center and Oregon Literary Arts. His poetry has been featured on Garrison Keillor’s National Public Radio program, “The Writer’s Almanac,” and has won a Pushcart Prize. Millar has taught at Pacific University, the University of Oregon and Oregon State University.

Mlekoday is the winner of the 2012 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize for his book The Dead Eat Everything. He won the National Poetry Slam in 2009 as a member of the St. Paul team and returned the following year to coach the team to its second championship. He serves as poetry editor of Indiana Review, and his poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Ninth Letter, RHINO, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Anti-, Muzzle Magazine and other journals.

“To have Dorianne Laux, Joseph Millar and Michael Mlekoday all reading and discussing their poetry on the same day is a spectacular opportunity for the Kent Sate students, employees and for those in the community,” says Nicole Robinson, outreach manager for the Wick Poetry Center. “All three poets have a unique voice in their poetry, but all encompass such passion, depth and radiance in their craft. Nov. 6 promises to be a magical day and an evening of poetry and inspiration for all who attend the events.”